"She reads books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live." Annie Dillard

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Friday, March 15, 2019

kay's week - 3.15.19

Reading this week...

I had a great week in the reading area. I finally finished Kelley Armstrong's first book in her Rockton series - City of the Lost. It's not that I wasn't enjoying it or absorbed in the story. I just kept having to stop and read other things. In any case, I did like it very much and have begun the second book, A Darkness Absolute. This series takes place in the wilds of Canada. Rockton is a small town that people come to when they are escaping from bad things in their regular life. Casey Duncan was a homicide detective in her former life and she's one of three people who comprise the police in Rockton, a town definitely off the grid. Interesting concept.

I listened to The Silent Patient, a debut thriller, by Alex Michaelides. It was narrated very ably by Jack Hawkins and Louise Brealey. It's about a woman artist who apparently kills her husband and then refuses to speak ever again. She is placed in a secure unit and a therapist makes it his mission to get her story. It's told by the therapist and also through the woman's diary. I especially enjoyed the interview at the end of the book with the author. He told of his upbringing in Cyprus and how this story is based on a Greek tragedy by Euripides. I liked the story itself, though I did figure it out.

The other two books I read were both compilations of short stories by P.D. James. Both were published after her death, but the stories had been published previously. They were Sleep No More and The Mistletoe Murder. I always think that I don't really like short stories all that much. However, as I was doing a read/listen of these books, I remembered that I've read every single short story written by Agatha Christie. And liked them. I have not read any of P.D. James books - and I'm not sure why - however, I'm going to change that. I'll tell more below as I discussed the first book with a book group. Both were narrated by Daniel Weyman and the second also included Jenny Agutter.

Other stuff...

I attended a book group that I rarely go to this week and it was a kind of funny experience. I saw a former colleague at another local library and she asked if I was coming to book group. They were reading a short story collection by P.D. James. She knows about my mystery love. I've attended her group now and then, but it's hard to keep up with the reading for too many groups. Anyway, I decided to try the book and go. I'm good friends with the leader and worked with her in the past. She does a good job of moderating. The group is nice and I recognized a few faces. However, they do not read mysteries very much. I rather silently giggled as they related their views about British mysteries (don't like them much), about Agatha Christie (she 'tricks' the reader), and about having a hard time keeping up with characters even though these were short stories. One lady took copious notes of each story and another said she found it completely obvious deciding who committed the crimes because the story was too short. The people were too 'stiff upper lip' and not emotional enough. Justice wasn't served. There were no thrills. As I said - I giggled inside. I did share a bit from the beginning of The Mistletoe Murder, which was not the book we were discussing. In it, Val McDermid writes the forward and tells of her admiration for P.D. James. The prologue of that book is by James herself and she relates how writing short stories is different and challenging for an author. Well, different strokes for different folks. Everyone has their own 'comfort zone' in reading. Mine usually involve crime and bodies. Ha!

Wild Horses in New Mexico

I'll share a picture here that I've meant to share since last summer. The Ruidoso area of New Mexico has some wild horses that live up in the mountains. These lovely creatures will come down for a bit now and then. Other creatures come down too - bears, mountain lions, elk - it's hard to catch the horses though and, when my husband and I saw these in someone's yard, we snapped a picture. Yes, these horses are a wild herd that roam in the Ruidoso/Alto area. Sometimes, we get lucky and see them. Cool, right?

Hope you all have a good weekend! Just keep repeating - spring is coming, spring is coming!

39 comments:

Oh now, my eldest daughter was talking about Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series and what a good series it is. I must do something about that now. :-)

I've read Sleep No More, thought the stories were excellent. I have The Mistletoe Murders on my tbr pile will probably read that at Christmas (we'll soon be there!) I too tend to think I don't really go for short stories but I think I'm now converted. Just finished Miss Marple's Final Cases and it was really good.

Loved hearing about your book group experience, really made me smile. Each to his own, as they say.

Each to his own, indeed, Cath. Good to hear that your daughter likes the Rockton series. It's different. When you get to The Mistletoe Murders, be sure and don't miss the 'forward' and the 'preface'. Both are very good.

The audio of The Silent Patient is good, Diane. Yes, these book groups that I don't attend all the time are like that for me. I guess I don't get to know the members well enough or maybe I just prefer talking about mysteries.

The Silent Patient is on my TBR, glad to hear it was good. I hate when I figure it out before I'm meant to though, I try really hard not to! Ha.Book clubs are the best! I have friends that I've known since I was 12 because of the teen book club, some of my best friends!

That's great to have friends from book club since you were that young. I wish there had been a teen book club in my day. Our mystery group has been meeting for 11 years now and several of us know each other quite well. As to figuring out the mystery, well, I do try to do it. I enjoy the puzzle and so don't get worried when I guess what might happen.

I can't imagine having 8 wild horses in my front yard! When we were visiting our friends in New Braunfels, there were dozens and dozens of deer all over the front lawns in the development. Most of the residents dislike them, but a few put feed out for them, so it's a problem that won't go away anytime soon.

I was rather fascinated with the wild horses too, Les. Deer, we're used to them. I have deer in my yard each and every day. The deer in NM are larger though and then there are the elk - they are huge! We've seen a bear too once - he was crossing a road we were travelling down. Freaky!

Ha! I'm so hooked on crime I find it hard to understand why everyone doesn't love it, but as you say, different strokes! I listened to Mistletoe Murders a year or so ago - loved a couple, wasn't so thrilled by the other two. But I did like Daniel Weyman as a narrator. I hope you enjoy PD James' novels - I was a big fan of hers while she was writing, but it's been a while since I re-read her...

Well, it was either be annoyed or laugh. I decided that laughing inside was better. I think some of the people in this group are ones that prefer 'literary' book or classics and maybe don't love books in the various genre realms. I did almost get into an argument with the man sitting next to me about whether Agatha Christie 'tricked' the reader or not. We did not agree on the issue. Ha!

Love the photo of the wild horses! So glad you got to see them - I didn't know there were any in New Mexico. My daughter went to visit her college roommate/best friend in Las Cruces a couple of months ago. I thought of you wen she told me they went to Ruidoso. Unfortunately they were not able to go to White Sands or Carlsbad... it was during the government shutdown.

What? Some people don't care for or appreciate mysteries? How odd is that. Short stories are great to have around when you find yourself having to wait somewhere for an hour i.e drs office, car place etc. Great picture of the horses at Ruidoso. We used to go skiing there but have never been there in the summer.

Sigh. Book clubs have changes. My book club of over 21 years literally fell apart when a new library system took our libraries over. We had such a good relationship with our library system and they always allowed us to use their meeting room AND order the books for us. But now, nope. No help at all. They kick us out every chance they can get and none of our books make it in. My group will not buy a book, ever. Which makes it difficult so the club is over and done with.

Some tried to turn it into something else, a movie/book club but it's limping along. Not my style and they excluded some key folks from the original group which I thought was petty.

Oh wow! Sounds like an interesting book group. I will say PD James isn't my favorite of the British mystery writers but still! I've been thinking about trying a book club at my library. They have two different ones based on genre and they're always reading tempting books. One day I'll get up the courage to actually do it!

Katherine, I encourage you to try one of those book groups. They are a lot of fun and you might discover some new book friends. Wish I could invite everyone to come to ours. If you're ever in Austin...